...and better than 23kph, so not exactly a shuffle. Even with no wind and no slopes it takes a lot to hold that speed for 4 hours. A lot more than most people of ANY age can manage. Nothing short of awesome.

Mine is close to yours in date Colin, but not distance I don't have a uni, but am considering parity ballast by commuting on this beast tomorrow for its bi-annual ride.

It might just be cold and windy enough to not break a sweat if the ticker* can hold out * bonus points and seniors' discount for using an exclusive over 55's word?

I still have to practice the emergency braking skate shoe jammed in fork crown. Not required on sand, but on road roller brake rear is more about slowing enough to abandon ship than actually stopping. Adrenalin thrills like that make up for any lack of speed =D

I'm nearing 64 years of age so this year I have to manage at least one 64km ride in a day. Today I made an effort to get this one out of the way nice and early.

It was around 8 hours from when I left home to when I returned with around 6.5 hours actual riding time and I finished on 65.55km for the day. I was flagging in the last couple of hours and averaged a little under 10kph.

I have done one ride that was just a smidgin under or over 70km in the past. I think that this one was my second best to that.

I'm now a little bit burnt and a little weary. But the arrogance-buzz is cutting into that. A good start to the year.

Bl**dy hell I'll be turning 56 next Thursday....and.....I'll be on nearly 2 weeks holidays....so I guess I MIGHT have a go at this myself

56 kms is a fair way on a pushy.....yesterday (NYD) I did a decent first ride of the year and managed 53kms and I was knackered but I was amazed at the amount of ground I had covered for just that amount of K's.

I probably could do a lot more on a 7kg racer but my umpteen plus kg Vivente and it's 117kg pilot really struggled with the long gradual climbs.

I plan on doing a fair bit of riding during my break...so yeah..this sounds like a plan!!

brumby33 wrote:How do you handle the hills or is it just for the flat areas?

Cheers

Dave

With the extra low gear-inches inherent in an ungeared unicycle the force to be applied to the down-moving pedal to do useful work is quite low.

But it is natural to push the leading/front leg down harder than necessary and, to compensate, pressing the trailing leg coming up. This is wasted effort on the legs both fore and aft as they work against each other. The technique for greater efficiency is to focus on lifting the trailing leg off the pedal rather than telling my legs to push down on the front pedal. In simple terms, "lift, not push". It's not natural and, done well, for much of a ride the feet can be almost floating over the pedals. Very occasionally I will lose contact with both pedals for a turn or so (which can look quite comical ).

The same technique applies for moderate-medium inclines.

Because I was aiming for the long distance I was more deliberate in technique today. But even then it is still harder climbing hills than on a bike. And after getting to the crest I have to work just as hard coming down.

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